The Bible: Holy Book or Overrated Bestseller?

First UU Church of Berks County
The Bible: Holy Book or Overrated Bestseller?
Rev. Sandra Fees
July 10, 2011
In Sunday school as a child, I learned Bible stories. I didn’t always understand them
completely, but they were filled with adventure and beauty. I enjoyed reading the
Psalms. They nurtured a love of poetry and struck me with their depth of emotion. In
particular, the Psalms helped me understand that I could love God and that it was
okay to be angry with God. Meanwhile, my parents emphasized being a good person
and living according to Christian ethics.
As a youth, like many teens, I became filled with many religious questions. I didn’t
have the tools I needed to answer those questions or interpret the Bible in ways that
made sense to me. Increasingly I became alienated from church and read the Bible
less and less. I retained a deep-seated respect for the Bible as a holy book and a
lingering sense that it had something important to say to me, even if I didn’t know
how to unlock its secrets.
As a college student and young adult, I found spiritual solace in novels and poems.
They became my wisdom teachers. From time to time, my Bible interest was reignited.
I remember a period in which I tried to decipher the code of the Book of
Revelation, sparked by contemporary films like the Omen with its use of the number
666. And I went through various periods of Bible apathy and even rejection. At one
point, the Bible seemed irrelevant to me, and I gave away my childhood Bible, which I
sorely regret now. I am glad now to have my mother’s bible, which zips closed just
like mine used to do.
It wasn’t until I went to theological school that I learned contemporary approaches to
Bible study. Biblical historicism, a hermeneutics of suspicion, feminist and
liberationist critiques, and other methods unlocked new potential. Hermeneutics is
the study of the interpretation of written texts. Reading the Bible became a literary
and spiritual adventure. The stories I learned as a child no longer seemed so removed
from real life. I found they had much to say about the human condition. Questions
were welcomed into the interpretive venture.
As Unitarian Universalists, we have diverse histories, experiences, and needs when it
comes to the Bible. Not everyone has read the Bible or studied it. Not everyone has
had the benefit of learning different hermeneutical techniques. Nor does everyone
have a desire to do so. While some of us have little knowledge and would like to learn
more, some are indifferent. Some UUs love the Bible. Some have an allergic reaction
to it. Some are intimidated. Some have been injured by it. Some find it healing.
Stephen Fritchman, a prominent Unitarian minister in the middle of the last century,
once preached a sermon entitled, The Bible: That Vastly Overrated Bestseller.
Fritchman said, "I find most of the Bible a dead weight, a tradition which holds me
back even unconsciously from honest and nonconformist thinking on matters it speaks
about" (qtd in “How Religious Liberals Read the Bible” by Rev. Colin Bossen, August
30, 2009). Fritchman’s assessment is a bit extreme for many contemporary Unitarian
Universalists. We may actually be closer in thought to a much older source: Unitarian
minister William Ellery Channing.
In the 19th century, he delivered a landmark sermon, entitled Unitarian Christianity.
In it, he described the Bible as "a book written for [humans], in the language of
[humans]" whose "meaning is to be sought in the same manner as that of other books."
That manner is reason, and Channing emphasized the use of reason to study the Bible.
Describing Channing’s approach to the Bible, Forrest Church, another Unitarian
Universalist minister, said:
to [Channing] the Bible was written not by God, but by inspired people,
drawing from both history and experience, who sought to understand better
the larger meaning of life and death. Fundamentalists may trivialize the Bible
by excluding reason as the principal tool by which it may be understood, but
this does not mean that reasonable reflections upon the stories and teachings
contained therein cannot markedly advance our own humble search for
meaning and for faith (A Chosen Faith).
The great Transcendentalist Unitarian minister Theodore Parker wanted to tease out
what was permanent and what was transient in religion. In doing so, he argued that
the Bible contained both time-bound information and eternal truths (A Chosen Faith).
The work of contemporary Unitarian Universalists authors and theologians like
Rebecca Parker and John Buehrens examines the intersection of liberal Christianity
and Unitarian Universalism. For them, understanding the history and theology of
Christianity is essential to liberal religion. They have written accessible books
reclaiming Biblical wisdom.
The reality is that, for Unitarian Universalists, the Bible isn’t required reading. There
isn’t the expectation that it will be the sole or even primary religious text or source
for us. It may or may not be the first place we turn when seeking comfort and
inspiration. Yet, there are good reasons to keep a copy in your personal library and to
engage with it from time to time. The Bible has shaped Western religion, literature,
art, and even film. Knowledge of the Bible enhances cultural literacy and personal
spirituality.
There’s an old joke about Unitarian Universalists and their lack of knowledge about
the Bible. It goes like this:
Two Unitarian Universalists were debating their knowledge of Christianity.
One said, “I bet you don’t even know the Lord’s Prayer!”
“Oh really,” the other responded, “I bet you 10 bucks I do!”
“You’re on. Let’s hear it.”
The second man began to recite: “The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. … ”
The first man cut him off saying, “That’s not the Lord’s Prayer, that’s the 23rd
Psalm. The Lord’s Prayer goes, ‘Now I lay me down to sleep and pray the
lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake I pray the Lord my soul to
take’”
The second man looked him in the eye and said, “Alright, you win.
Knowing the difference between the Lord’s Prayer and the 23rd Psalm may seem like
an intellectual exercise. For me, it has proved to be a very real and important
distinction. I served as a chaplain at Hershey Medical Center while preparing for
ministry. One evening, I was asked by a woman whose father had just died to
accompany her to his side and pray the 23rd Psalm. As we walked down the hallway, I
wondered to myself, do I know the words. I began to say it to myself. “The Lord is my
Shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me
beside still waters.”
When we reached her father’s side, I prayed the psalm with her. For her, at a time of
great loss, it was a deeply comforting prayer. You may never be called upon in quite
that way. But there are some words, some prayers, which can transcend religious
differences. They are holy words. It’s helpful for us to have that level of interfaith
literacy. Despite its use by some groups and individuals to indoctrinate – even to
incite violence and hatred – the Bible contains holy words. It certainly deserves to be
given the same consideration we afford other sacred texts. After all, the Bible
contains the primary religious texts of two major world religions - Judaism and
Christianity.
To me, one of the best reasons to engage the Bible is to uncover its timeless truths.
We can find holy words that can offer insight into our own lives and contemporary
affairs. There are countless stories that do that: the Prodigal Son, the Good
Samaritan, Creation, the Exodus, and the teachings of Jesus, to name just a few.
Think of the words of the prophets who challenged people to treat each other well.
Think of the prayers, the 23rd Psalm and Lord’s Prayer.
One of our commitments as religious liberals is to seek truth and meaning with an
open mind and an open heart. This means being open to the truth no matter who is
saying it in or in what language or which book or which religion.
Our own forebears did a lot of heavy lifting for us already in this regard. They culled
the Bible for timeless truths and featured them prominently, even if not exclusively,
in our UU ethics, values, principles, and sources. Biblical words and images influence
us as Unitarian Universalists in a variety of ways even if we don’t always realize it.
They also featured them in our music. Consider our music this morning. Our hymns
this morning - Though I May Speak with Bravest Fire, Balm of Gilead, and We’ll Build
a Land, which we will be singing as our closing hymn - each reference Biblical texts.
In our responsive reading, we joined in reading Paul’s letter to the Corinthians in the
New Testament. These are the words that inspired our opening hymn, Though I May
Speak with Bravest Fire. How often have we heard these words at a wedding? Perhaps
some of you included them in your own marriage ceremony. It is agape love which
Paul was talking about in Corinthians. Love of neighbor, he taught, engenders justice,
kindness, and truth. This message about love resonates strongly with the Universalist
side of our faith in which this congregation has its deepest historic roots. The idea is
expressed in the words on our pulpit: “God is Love.”
Balm of Gilead is an old spiritual, but has made a comeback in our UU tradition in the
new hymnal supplement. The balm of Gilead was also known as the balsam of Mecca.
It was a plant native to southern Arabia. The Biblical reference is made by the
prophet Jeremiah in the Hebrew scriptures. He used this phrase in the Hebrew
Scriptures to convey the spiritual healing the people of Israel needed. Seeing people
mistreating each other, he asked rhetorically: “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no
physician there? Why has the health of my people not been restored?” The phrase
“balm of Gilead” appears elsewhere in literature. For example, the narrator in Edgar
Allan Poe’s poem, The Raven, who is broken-hearted after his lover’s death, asks the
raven, “Is there balm in Gilead?” (online UUA, hymnal supplement song explanations).
Our closing hymn, We’ll Build a Land makes use of the words of another Old
Testament prophet, Amos. Amos lived at a time when people were crowding into
worship but not living their principles. Striving to awaken them, he wrote,
Take away from me the noise of your songs
I will not listen to the melody of your harps
But let justice roll down like waters
and righteousness like an everflowing stream.
These three hymns draw on Bible wisdom that is thousands of years old. These hymns
draw on timeless wisdom. The words speak to us about spiritual matters that affect
our daily lives. Justice, healing, and love are theological concepts still central to our
faith and our lives. The spiritual needs Paul, Amos and Jeremiah recognized as urgent
in their day continue as challenges to this day.
Of course, it’s possible to find these concepts in other forms in other religions and
other texts. The Bible is not the only Holy Book. It may not even be your primary holy
book. But it is a holy book. It is one that has helped to shape our religion, and is
continuing to do so, alongside other sacred sources - alongside science, earthcentered
traditions, and world religions.
Though the Bible is not required reading, it is available to us as a source to enrich our
faith. There are holy words in it that have the potential to heal hearts, to demand
justice, and to engender love. May we respect its power and potential to do so.
May it be so. Amen.